Mark Allen beat Neil Robertson by 10-6 to win the 2020 Champion of Champions. Five years ago, the two of them had met in the Champion of Champion Final and Neil had prevailed by 10-5. This time Mark was too strong for him.

Mark Allen certainly didn’t have an easy path to the title: he beat Ronnie, the World Champion and World number two, in the QF, Judd Trump, the World number one, in the SF and Neil, the defending Champion and World number three, for the title.

Congratulations Mark Allen!

These are the reports by WST.

Afternoon session

Sunday 8 Nov 2020 05:00PM

Mark Allen edged to a 5-4 lead over defending champion Neil Robertson after an enthralling opening session of the 888sport Champion of Champions final in Milton Keynes.

The clash is a repeat of the 2015 Champion of Champions final, which saw Robertson emerge a 10-5 victor. However, the Australian will have to come from behind to secure the title this year.

The high quality afternoon session saw both players produce a barrage of breaks. Northern Irishman Allen opened proceedings with a contribution of 101, before Robertson replied immediately with a fine run of 121 to draw level at 1-1. Allen then claimed the following two frames to head into the mid-session 3-1 ahead.

Robertson pulled within a frame upon the resumption, before Allen restored his two-frame cushion with a break of 110. However, Robertson produced back-to-back century runs of 108 and 109 to restore parity at 4-4. Allen then took the last of the afternoon to secure his one frame advantage.

They will return at 7pm to play the best of 19 encounter to a finish, with the winner picking up the £150,000 top prize.

Evening session:

Sunday 8 Nov 2020 09:28PM

Mark Allen defeated Neil Robertson 10-6 to win his first 888sport Champion of Champions title at Marshall Arena, Milton Keynes on Sunday night, live on ITV4.

Having already knocked out World Champion Ronnie O’Sullivan and world number one Judd Trump, Allen’s task in the final was to overhaul defending champion Robertson in what was a re-run of the 2015 conclusion of this event.

Allen’s last tournament win was almost two years ago at the Scottish Open, but he ended that drought in style, collecting the £150,000 top prize with a confident victory over Robertson at the end of a week of the highest-quality snooker.

“Beating the world number one, two and three in succession to win a big tournament like this, it’s what we play for,” said Allen. “A few splits here and there and that could have been a lot closer, because Neil didn’t look like missing when he was in.

“My safety was pretty good all day and I feel like I played pretty well. Guys like Neil, Ronnie, Judd and Selby, they make winning look easy and it’s not. I work really, really hard on the practice table and if I can pick up a tournament or two every season or every other season, I feel like I am doing well because the standard is that good.

“I could have been beaten first round against Scott Donaldson, I was a few balls away from losing that match 4-2. I did what Stephen Maguire did at the Tour Championship; I didn’t feel I deserved to be here but I took full advantage by going on to win.

“My dad will definitely be watching. I don’t think he has stopped smiling since I won the Masters so this is like a new smile for him. He’s a very proud father and I’m a very proud son, so this is for him but it’s also for a lot of people who support me along the way.”

Robertson commented: “His safety play was very solid throughout the whole match. My safety against Selby in the semis was fantastic and today it wasn’t anywhere near those levels unfortunately. My scoring was very good throughout the match but I could have done better with some of my safeties and Mark capitalised and he thoroughly deserved to win the match. He played a brilliant match throughout and he has beaten some great players on the way to winning it, like I did last year.”

Allen had laid down a marker in the very first frame, firing in a 102. Robertson was equal to it though and responded with a 121 to level. Allen opened up a 3-1 lead by the interval of the afternoon session and the first two frames after the break were shared, leaving Allen 4-2 ahead.

Robertson hit back strongly, though, with century breaks of 108 and 109 to draw level. The ninth and final frame of the first session went the way of the Northern Irishman, who made a 67 to take a slender lead into the evening.

Allen again opened up a two-frame lead early in the concluding session, but the Northern Irishman missed a yellow to allow Robertson in and when it had looked like Allen would take a three-frame lead into the mid-session, he instead saw his lead reduced to 7-6.

However, a 119 in the next re-established Allen’s cushion and he was now as close to the title as he was ahead of his opponent. He moved to within one of the title in the next frame and completed the victory with a 105 in the 16^th frame.

I only watched the second session, so my assesment might not be correct, but, from what I saw, of the three top seeds, it was Ronnie who actually gave Mark the sternest test. Until the “incident” in the last frame, the match had been very close. In the SF, Mark totally outplayed Judd Trump. In the last session of the final, Mark always looked in control against Neil.

Regarding the incident, Ronnie did apologise to Mark shortly after their match.

…

‘Ronnie actually text me last night just to apologise, “let’s move on” type thing. Hopefully we can all do that now.’

…

The two of them are good friends so I’m not surprised. The way Ronnie reacted, during the match, wasn’t good. It made for bad viewing, and it cost him his concentration. He should have had a quite word with the referee, or maybe even with Mark, well before his frustration over-boiled. But, factually, he was right and I wonder if Mark will ever go back to that match, watch the footage, and apologise to Ronnie as well.

Mark Allen completely outplayed Judd Trump yesterday evening, to earn his spot in the Final today. He will play Neil Robertson over best of 19.

Here is WST report:

Trump Loses – By A Lot

Mark Allen stunned Judd Trump with an emphatic 6-1 semi-final victory to advance to the 888sport Champion of Champions final, where he’ll meet Neil Robertson on Sunday, live on ITV4 at the Marshall Arena, Milton Keynes.

Allen had defeated World Champion Ronnie O’Sullivan to reach the last four and came out firing against Trump with a 102 to set the tone. The second frame was closer but after a re-rack Allen made a break of 48 for a 2-0 lead, which he doubled before the interval.

World number one Trump didn’t get on the board until the sixth frame, but by then there was too much work left to be done and Antrim potter Allen completed a 6-1 win in the very next frame.

“I’m very, very happy,” said Allen. “It was a completely different performance from the O’Sullivan match but it had to be, because I’m not going to out-pot Judd over distance. I had to make sure I kept it tight and make it really tough for him. He is world number one by a mile so I knew I had to do something different to beat him.

“Judd is capable of getting on a run and scoring heavy and fast; 5-0 can turn to 5-3, 5-4 very quickly, so to take advantage of the tight frames was a big bonus because they can swing a match and on another day that match is 3-2 after five frames. I played some good safety towards the end of frames and pulled away to 5-0.

“Neil showed in his semi-final against Selby just how good he is capable of playing and I will need to be at my very, very best, better than I was tonight. It is going to be a tough final but I have beaten him before and I will fancy my chances tomorrow.”

Trump, whose £30,000 semi-finalist prize money carries his career earnings above £6million, said: “It was a struggle. The first two frames could go either way but after that I missed a lot of balls. He played well and towards the end I tried to stick in there but was a bit unlucky, nothing was really going my way. It was one of those days, I was too slow out of the blocks.”

Allen took the opening frame with a 102, made after a fluked red when he went into the pack. Scoring wasn’t heavy in the frames that followed, but Allen made the contributions which mattered to lead 3-0.

Trump was looking for two snookers at the end of the fourth frame. He got one but couldn’t find the other, and when Allen potted the blue, the Pistol had a 4-0 mid-session lead.

The break didn’t halt Allen, who made a 66 in the first frame back to move to within a frame of the final. Trump fought back with an 80 to get on the board at 5-1 but it was too late for a fightback, and Allen closed out the match when he took the seventh frame on the pink.

Allen will meet Robertson in a repeat of the 2015 final over 19 frames on Sunday. The first session begins at 1pm, live on ITV4.

SEMI-FINAL
Judd Trump 1–6 Mark Allen
24-102 (102), 40-65, 20-56, 49-82 (65), 14-67 (66), 95-5 (80), 64-78 (67)

For ounce WST “title pun” made me genuinely smile.

I haven’t watched the match yet, I’ll try to find a footage today, but I’m happy that Allen backed his victory over Ronnie with this one. Going by the scores, Judd offered significantly less resistance that Ronnie… and couldn’t help but mention bad luck.

I have no problem with my favourite player/sportsperson losing, that’s part of any sport, but it always annoys me when an opponent produces a one-off stunning performance to kick  them out of a competition only to lose with an indifferent display at the next stage.

We indeed have a repeat of the 2015 Final, but i would be surprised if it was as one-sided today as it was five years ago; it ened on a 10-5 score in favour of Neil that time. If Allen were to lose heavily today, he should seriously consider to work on his fitness. It’s been the story of last season: he regularly made it to semi-finals, and seemed to have little left in the tank by that stage. It surely isn’t because a lack of bottle or motivation. Snooker may not be the most physical of sports, players still need to be reasonably fit to perform at the highest level particularly in multi-session matches.

Neil Robertson title defence continues as he beat Mark Selby by 6-5 to book his place in the final. It was a match of exceptional quality.

Here is WST report:

Friday 6 Nov 2020 11:24PM

Defending champion Neil Robertson beat Mark Selby 6-5 in a high-quality semi-final which will go down as an all-time classic to reach Sunday’s final of the 888sport Champion of Champions at Marshall Arena, Milton Keynes, live on ITV4.

The standard was exceptional and the six centuries made between Selby and Robertson equalled the record for a best of 11, set by Robertson and Judd Trump at the 2016 Masters. ITV4 pundits Stephen Hendry and Ken Doherty agreed it was the best 11-frame match they had ever witnessed.

Nothing could split Selby and Robertson over the first ten frames; the Jester From Leicester led four times until his opponent pulled in front for the first time at 5-4. The world number four responded to force the decider but Robertson’s title defence will now continue against either Trump or Mark Allen after it was the Thunder From Down Under who took the final frame, with a match-winning break of 54.

“It was a brilliant match to be a part of,” said Robertson. “I think both of us really enjoyed being out there, playing like that and I think we both brought the best out of each other. I can’t really think of anything I missed and the centuries Mark was making were off really good long pots or fantastic safety shots to create chances.

“If I lost the decider with only really missing two balls in the match, it would have been harsh but what a match. The Rasson tables have played amazing well, really fast, it bounces off the cushions perfectly and it’s really good to score on. The real winner is the fans, everyone watching at home, because they’ve seen some really good snooker this week.

“Not many players have won this event. You have to beat the very best players in the world and it is going to require an equally impressive performance as what I gave today to lift the trophy.”

There was nothing to split Robertson and Selby at the mid-session; the Australian making his 23^rd century of the season with a 100 to make it 2-2 at the break. Selby opened the second part of the match with a faultless 131 to take the lead for the third time in the match.

Robertson levelled again, but again his opponent moved ahead, this time with a 137. The defending champion wasn’t to be outdone though and produced a great 141 to level again; the match now reduced to a best of three.

The ninth frame was the one in which Robertson was finally able to move ahead as he produced a 121, but Selby forced the decider with a 137. The century tally was now at six in the last seven frames.

The decider was the longest frame of a pulsating match and it was Robertson who broke through, winning with a 54.

The second semi-final of the 888sport Champion of Champions takes place on Saturday as World No.1 Judd Trump faces Mark Allen over 11 frames from 6:45pm, live on ITV4.

And here are the scores … impressive!

I would love to see Neil lift the trophy again tomorrow.

It was a bitter-sweet day for me watching the Champion of Champions. Sweet because, for most of the day, Ronnie played extremely well and looked focused. Bitter not so much because he lost but because the way it all finished.

Here is the report by WST:

Thursday 5 Nov 2020 11:14PM

Mark Allen knocked Ronnie O’Sullivan out of the 888sport Champion of Champions, winning 6-3 at the Marshall Arena in Milton Keynes, live on ITV4.

The Antrim man was on top form in the Group 3 final, but the match will be remembered for a prolonged verbal clash between the two players during the last frame. O’Sullivan, trailing 5-3, felt that his opponent had been moving in his eyeline and made his case for over a minute. Allen denied any wrongdoing and eventually O’Sullivan was persuaded by referee Marcel Eckardt to play his next shot. He missed a red to a top corner and Allen made a clearance of 66 to advance to the semi-finals, where he’ll meet Judd Trump on Saturday evening.

“I finished the match well in the afternoon so had some positives to hang onto coming into tonight,” said Allen. “I knew I would need to play better and I did. I only really missed one shot in the balls, a black at 1-1. Other than that, it was a decent performance and my long game came on as the match went on.

“I’m not getting ahead of myself, it’s just one win. I came here to win the tournament and I knew I had two tough matches ahead of me to get through today and it doesn’t get any harder than Judd Trump in the semi-finals but that is what you want – to play the top players in the biggest tournaments on the biggest stage.

“I think Ronnie just got into his own head. He was taking forever on shots for the previous frame and a half, I left him touching ball a few times and he was taking forever over them. He was taking two minutes to decide to put me back on one of them and was never taking anything on. I think he was just looking for an excuse if anything went wrong.

“To accuse me of moving on his shots and standing in his eyeline, it’s just crazy. Even Marcel, the referee, said ‘Mark, I know you haven’t don’t anything but let’s just play the game’, that’s all I really needed to hear, it put me at ease. I wasn’t going to back down from Ronnie. He is a great snooker player, the best ever in my opinion, but sometimes he lets himself down with what he does and what he says. I wasn’t going to let that go because I knew I was in the right.”

Asked about the altercation, O’Sullivan said: “When someone is continuously in your eyeline and when you are on a shot and he’s moving, maybe I read a bit too much into it, but it just seemed a little bit like stuff you do down the snooker club when you’re an amateur and you are trying to get into your opponent’s head or trying to put him off. I thought, I’m going to pull you up on it, I’m not going to let it go. There’s no point letting it go and he carries on doing it, so I just thought get it out of the way and it’s done. But he deserved his victory.

“That’s why I was just taking my time on certain shots, I thought I’m not going to play this shot until you actually sit down in your chair. I could have said something then but I thought, hopefully you get the message, and he kind of did because he sat down. Then when I was playing the shot he started ripping his logo off so I thought I have to have a word with him. There are no hard feelings, he played better tonight, he played fantastic and deserved his victory but sometimes you just have to say something and get it out of the way.”

The break building was clinical in the group final. Allen opened with a 78 before O’Sullivan went one better and levelled with a 79. The Rocket then moved ahead with a 91 but the players headed to the mid-session locked at 2-2 after Allen made a 102 in the fourth.

O’Sullivan regained the lead in the fifth before the Antrim man levelled again – he potted 13 reds and 13 blacks before missing a tricky 14th red to a centre pocket, his break ending at 104. He was visibly disappointed that his 147 attempt broke down, but Allen was in the ascendancy nonetheless and took the next three frames to book his place in the last four.

Earlier, O’Sullivan had defeated Michael Holt 4-1. The Hitman, in the event as Shoot Out champion, took the opening frame with a 107, but O’Sullivan was giving little away and took the next four frames to win inside 50 minutes.

Allen came through a close battle against Scott Donaldson in his group semi-final, making a 125 in the last frame to win 4-3.

The first semi-final of the 888sport Champion of Champions takes place on Friday as defending champion Neil Robertson takes on Mark Selby over 11 frames from 6:45pm, live on ITV4.

GROUP 3

Group Semi-Finals
Ronnie O’Sullivan 4-1 Michael Holt
0-107 (107), 96-5 (65), 86-14 (86), 71-0 (71), 136-0 (87)

Mark Allen 4-3 Scott Donaldson
0-80 (65), 99-33 (64), 68-75 (Allen 55), 78-14 (54), 15-59, 48-10, 125-0 (125)

Group Final
Ronnie O’Sullivan 3–6 Mark Allen
5-78 (78), 79-0 (79), 95-37 (91), 1-102 (102), 77-11 (51), 0-104, 10-73, 0-74 (74), 72-26 (66)

Here are the stats for the Ronnie versus Michael Holt match:

Impressive!

After the match the Neal Foulds ans Alan McManus reflected how Ronnie still played “youthful” snooker. He still goes for his shots like he did when he was 16.

Mark Allen played OK in the afternoon, but Scott could have won this match had he been able to keep his composure.

During the group final, in the evening, Mark Allen played extremely well. Ronnie didn’t play badly at all and gave it everything except towards the end of the last frame. Both players had a pot success rate over 90%.

Mark Allen was the better player and deserved the win. It was just a shame that a great match ended the way it did. 

Now onto that incident… 

Here is Ronnie protesting about Mark’s behaviour…

Now let’s have a look at a few screenshots taken during that phase of the frame (CCTV footage).

And this footage, where you see Allen moving whilst standing in Ronnie’s eyeline

In all but one of those images – taken during the long safety exchange in the last frame. just before Ronnie’s protest – you can see Mark Allen standing, and rather close to the table. In some pictues you only see his legs and feet, and the cue. The way they appear in the picture shows that he was not heading to his seat. He was standing there. You can also see that he definitely stood in Ronnie’s eyeline on some shots. So that wasn’t “crazy”, it was the truth and it went on for long minutes. Ronnie was 5-3 down, it was a critical frame for him.

In the one image where Mark is sat, you can see him fidgeting with his logo. That logo kept coming off, and eventually Marcel told him to just take it off and play without it. But even after that, it must have left sticky traces of glue on Mark’s waistcoat because he kept trying to remove something where the logo had stood. Did he do it when Ronnie was on the shot? Yes, that could be seen for a second in the ITV footage.

Was is gamesmanship from Mark? I don’t think so. That’s not like the Mark Allen I know for years.

Was Ronnie right in his protest? Yes and no. Yes, because indeed Mark wasn’t sitting in his chair, as he is supposed to do, and stood in his eyeline repeatedly during a critical phase of the match. No, because he shouldn’t have waited until his frustration was boiling over, and he shouldn’t have tried to deal with the situation himself. Instead, he should have asked Marcel to intervene, ask Mark to return to his seat and stay sat there when it was Ronnie’s turn at the table. If he was feeling the need to gather his toughts, calm down and regain his concentration, Ronnie could even have asked permission to leave the arena for a couple of minutes. There was a similar situation involving Jamie Clarke earlier in the season and that’s how it was “resolved”.

As it happened, Ronnie’s concentration and emotions were all over the place. He missed a very simple red and it cost him the frame and the match. He should have cleared from where he was, he would have earlier in the match, and it should have been 5-4. That doesn’t mean that he would have won the match. He would still have been behind, but at least, he would have had a chance …

And, as a final point regarding this whole incident, Marcel should have asked Mark to go and sit, even without Ronnie asking. That’s what players are supposed to do when their oppenent is at the table. It wasn’t just a one-off, it went on for long minutes. If, instead, he told Mark that he had done “nothing wrong”, that’s the crazy part.

The 2020 UK Championship draw and format have been posted bu WST:

Betway UK Championship Draw

Ding Junhui will start the defence of his Betway UK Championship title against amateur Jamie Curtis-Barrett later this month.

Click here for the draw

Click here for the format

The first Triple Crown event of the season will run from November 23 to December 6 in Milton Keynes, with 128 players battling for the coveted trophy and a top prize of £200,000. China’s Ding beat Stephen Maguire in the final last year, winning the event for the third time.

The event features 128 players in a flat draw. All matches are best of 11 frames, up until the final on Sunday December 6th which is best of 19.

World Champion Ronnie O’Sullivan will be up against Leo Fernandez in round one while world number one Judd Trump will take on Paul Davison.

Neil Robertson will face France’s top player Brian Ochoiski while three-time winner John Higgins will meet Fergal O’Brien.  Veterans Alan McManus and Jimmy White will go head to head while Mark Selby has been drawn against Michael White.

The event  will be staged behind closed doors at the Marshall Arena in Milton Keynes for the first time, in line with Government Covid-19 regulations.

From the second round onwards, November 28th to December 6th, the event will receive extensive live television coverage from BBC, Eurosport, Matchroom.Live and a range of other global broadcasters. Details of how to watch the opening round will be announced shortly.

First staged in 1977, the UK Championship has been won by all of snooker’s great names.

Prize money

Winner: £200,000
Runner-up: £80,000
Semi-finals: £40,000
Quarter-finals: £24,500
Last 16: £17,000
Last 32: £12,000
Last 64: £6,500
High break: £15,000
Total: £1,009,000

No Stephen Hendry in there, and I’m not surprised. He said  in commentary earlier this week that he wasn’t going to play in the UK. I think that the prospect of playing in Milton Keynes didn’t endear him that much, but also I believe that Steve Feeney made a mistake trying to “big up” Stephen’s return. That put unecessary pressure on the seven times World Champion.